Crack the iOS Human Interface Guidelines for app design

Average iOS users are busy with the applications. The iOS developers must know at least some specifications declared in the official Human Interface Guidelines (HIG). Head into the iOS design guidelines.

Mobile Apps are now the front and center for making the operations easy and fast. Almost for all purposes mobile applications have made their space and impelled people to use them every time. For Entertainment, Business, shopping, Gaming, Government departments, Education, Medical, Photography, news and media, lifestyle, banking, communication, finance and much more, you will find the best iOS applications to accomplish the tasks easier way.

It’s a challenge for iOS developers to match the system update and come up with the app which is stuffed with the new changes or updates. This kind of apps easily gets approved in the market. Before designing the iOS application, you must be aware of the Human Interface Guidelines (HIG). Here are few of the HIG guidelines for iOS which are defined by the Apple. Refer the summary of those iOS app UI guidelines which are specifically relevant to the iOS app designs.

Revolution & Display:

Apple has a variety of devices with the different resolution and display specifications. Like, iPhone 6+, 6s+ have the retina HD, 1080*1920 Portrait (px) and 1920*1080 Landscape (px). iPhone 6S have Retina, 750*1334 Portrait (px) and 1334*750 Landscape (px). The size and resolution variations are there for the iPad devices as well. Designing of the iOS devices is done in points which are entities with the multiple pixels. The points are the smallest physical elements and for the retina display, a single point contains 2*2 pixels.

Icons and Iconography:

App icons assets are generally added to the application. The plain, squared PNG files in various dimensions are added. From the iOS 7, the application icons have the shape of a superellipse. Still, there is not an official release of template for the shape. Hence, you can use any of the unofficial templates which may be more or less accurate. You must have noticed that the app icons will have a plain white background. The 1 Pixel border stroke with gray color can be added to make it easier to recognize the app icons. Make this change from the app settings, if your app is already listed in the Apple Appstore otherwise, wait till you do this.

Typography and Color Palette:

You have noticed Helvetica Neue as the default fonts on all previous versions before iOS 9. After its release, it has been replaced with the San Francisco. The “SF UI display” is basically used for the UI components and with the “SF UI Text” you can feature a wider letter spacing and can be used perfectly fit for the longer text. Consider the licenses, and you can use any True Type Font (.ttf) within an iOS app. Visit MYFonts as it consists the best collection of fonts. And according to your choice, you can purchase the license for mobile app usage.

From the release of iOS 7, an interface of the OS and Pre-installed application applications are displayed with the vibrant color palette. And if you want to stand out differently, then you can use your own choice of colors as well. Follow the iOS app design trends and you can get the best out of the designs.

A variety of ready-to-use iOS App design elements and controls are the benchmark of iOS platform. Designers can easily utilize them to build the interfaces quickly. Among them, many can be customized and altered for a change with limitations or at a certain level. Before starting the app design, refer the set of tools and utilize them, if suitable. Put your eyes on some of the elements and controls with which you can make some changes in a customized way.

Status Bar: Status bar is visually connected to the navigation bar and it can be visible with two different styles, dark and light. You can hide it as well. But, think before hiding it as it displays the current carrier, time, battery status, etc.

Controls:

iOS offers a range of controls for any input type. Button is one of the most used control. After the release of iOS 7 the button control has become highly customized. The button can be styled with the different text, drop shadows, color and backgrounds, etc.

Pickers are used to pick any one value from the list. The extended version of the picker is the datepicker. You can scroll trough the list of dates, time, month and select configurable day as well.

The slider control is there, which allows users to pick one specific values from the range of values. It is the good control for setting the sound volume. Additionally, it is possible to set the icons for minimum and maximum value. The icons can be of your choice and will be there at the start and end edge of the slider control.

Switch control is an easy way to toggle between the two available options or states. For iOS, switch control is there as the checkbox. Customize the states with the different color but, you can’t change the size.

Keyboard control is also there. The default keyboard is there. And if you don’t like it then you can make a customized one with the different size and style.

Clarity, Deference, and Depth:

iOS devices are interactive to use as throughout the system, a text is distinct, icons are precise, adornments are lucid. The system also focuses on the functionalities and motivates the interactive & clear designs. The important content is highlighted through the negative space, color, space, fonts, graphics, interface elements, etc.

Concluding Note:

The purpose of above discussion was to point out some information relevant to the Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) iOS design guidelines. Above discussed is the best guide and you must design the iOS applications by keeping all the effective factors in mind. Hire a dedicated iOS app developer and shape up the best application considering the Human Interface Guidelines.

Mr. Deepak Patel is an entrepreneur & founder of iMOBDEV Technologies - A leading web & mobile app development company. He is having 8+ years of experience in offering the splendid IT services to the worldwide clients. The informative articles he shares, reflect his skills in technical terms, project management and business development for the website & mobility solutions.